strangetrip | Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

Kitty sat at the bar with a cup of coffee and her notebook, watching the 'welcoming committee' make themselves busy. Liz was here, as she'd promised Kitty she would be and Kitty gave her a quick smile of encouragement.

One of the worst things about Check-In Days was that you never knew whether it'd be a whole long day of no one arriving, one spectacular fall from the ceiling and dropping dead after another, or anything in between. It made it hard to know what to do with yourself. After awhile, you got used to it and just kept on with whatever you'd do otherwise, and know that if you didn't step up for a new arrival, someone else would. But for someone not used to treating it like a responsibility to be here, especially someone with Liz's anxious need to be perfect at it, Check-In Day could be emotionally exhausting.

So Kitty made sure to have milk warmed for hot cocoa and her plans for the obstacle course handy in case Liz needed something to do with herself. Otherwise, she was working on a modification of Cerebro to see if she could start detecting new arrivals.

[ooc: Regular check-in day gathering post. If you want Kitty, ping me.]

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Thor spins around and his eyes quickly focus on the man standing in front of him. Even after years of dealing with Loki's illusions, he isn't sure what to think here. Is this man Thanos in some other guise? Is this some illusion he's cobbled together to manipulate him? Thor isn't sure, and the vigilance he feels registers on every line of his face and in the crease of his brow.

"What kind of trickery is this?" he demands. He shifts his leg, but doesn't yet narrow the space between him and the other man. He's all too ready to move the second he senses danger.

This man is probably a new arrival and, therefore, more dangerous now than he would ordinarily be. Still, he's not immediately threatening Kash, so Kash remains at a relaxed alert.

"Wish I knew," he answered honestly. Although what he'd do with the information now was a lot different than what he'd have done with it when he first arrived. "But whatever you think it is, it's probably not."

Thor's body doesn't relax at the answer. He still doesn't entirely believe this isn't one of Thanos' tricks.

"What is it, then?"

"All right, look."

Making an open show of the movement, Kash rests his spear upright. It's a clear statement of intention not to attack that a guy in this kind of armor is bound to recognize. Whether he trusts it or not is a different story. But Kash has magic if he doesn't. And it's not like Kash trusts him either. He's just a little more confident of the terrain.

"The truth is, I don't know what's going on here any more than you do. A year ago, I was in the same position you're in." Almost exactly. "Looking for the giants I just defeated and the dragon I hadn't yet and the woman I was doing that with. She showed up a few months ago, pregnant, with my kids, and I still haven't figured out how we got here."

What was this?

This was starting to feel less like something Thanos would come up with. He might have been in it for the long game with the Infinity Stones, with wiping out half the galaxy, but he wouldn't toy with him this long, or in this way.

It wasn't his style.

"I don't know who you are or what you're talking about, but I am getting out of here right now."

Thor lifts Stormbreaker into the air and he's engulfed in a pillar of light --

-- which promptly vanishes and reappears a scant 10 feet away from where he stood. It dissipates, leaving Thor slightly further away from Kash and more confused than he was about fifteen seconds before.

Thor turns and looks at Stormbreaker, befuddled, then gives it a tap with the butt of his hand, the way someone might give a malfunctioning remote.

Edited (spacing issues holla) 2018-06-16 03:48 (UTC)

Kash knows better than to get in the way of a big dude with a warhammer who thinks he's going somewhere. As long as this guy isn't trying to hit him or anyone else, he'll let him try.

So he watches when the guy lights up like a sacred flame, adding magic to his inventory of what he knows about the threats this guy can offer, and he's about to Send to Z about taking a flyover to see if they can find him, when he reappears, ten feet over.

Kash stifles a laugh. "Yeah. Should've warned you about that," he calls out. "You can travel four hours in any direction, but there's no 'out of here'."

"No," Thor says, and that word basically makes it law.

"I ventured to Nidavelli to have this hammer-axe crafted by the Dwarf King Eitri. It was forged from pure Uru melted down by the heat of a dying star."

He looks at it with the same look he gave Hulk when he announced that they were friends during the Contest of Champions and the Hulk thusly proceeded to shatter his shield and send him flying.

"I am leaving," he pronounces. "You will watch me leave. And you will be impressed."

Thor will not be here to witness the look of awe in this man's face when he witnesses Stormbreaker and him in all of his glory, but he briefly imagines it, then lifts Stormbreaker up into the sky. Once again, he's engulfed in a pillar of light --

-- only to resurface right next to Kashaw.

"Come on!" he yells at no one in particular.

The way he says 'no', Kash is ready to Send to Z again, this time just to have company watching this guy 'impress' him. Then he recalls another big loudmouth (and his enormous trouser snake) and decides to hold off, not because he thinks the guy's actually going to succeed, but... Who knows why?

Maybe it's schadenfreude. Maybe it's the other loudmouth.

"Go ahead," he mutters, tucking his spear beneath his arm and crossing his arms over his chest. "Impress me."

Another burst of light. Another failed teleport. Kash unfolds his arms to do what he's been informed is a 'golf clap'. "You know, my girlfriend could probably fix that thing if it's on the blink."

"I just built this thing!"

Thor frowns down at Stormbreaker. Then he looks over at Kash enviously. Not because Kash had a girlfriend and he did not, but because his hair was long and voluminous and his hair had been shaved off within the last fortnight by a creepy old man against his will.

"Is your girlfriend a famous smith?" he asks.

This guy. Seriously a head case. But it reminds of the Big Guy.

"She's a famous adventurer," Kash decides to say. Because she is. They both are, after Thordak. "She's just an excellent smith."

It's not the question the guy really needs an answer to, which is whether Z can make his hammer work (which...just... he's not going to think about the fact that he just thought of thought), but far be it from Kash to be that helpful.

Thor is now reasonably convinced that this is not one of Thanos' tricks, though he is not convinced that there is no way out of here. Saying something was impossible was simply saying that you had given up. Thor was not going to give up. The Nine Realms (or what remained of them) needed him.

"Will she need to hold it?" he asks. This seems important.

He is not thinking about Z holding his "hammer." He's not. Because he's not jealous just because this guy has some kind of fancy magical hammer (or a huge 'hammer') that Z's going to ooh and ahh over. Why should he be?

"Kinda hard--" Bad word. Bad. "To forge anything without touching it. But who knows, maybe she can just glare at it. Works for Shorthalt." And anyone with a brain.

"Can you show me how she would handle it?" he asks, Completely And Totally Seriously. "I'm very protective of it."

He holds the hammer out for Kash to take if he so chooses.

Kash glared at the guy, gaze narrowing. "No. No." He picked up his spear. "I am not going to do this bullshit roleplay show and tell."

His head already hurt from the layers of innuendo he was resolutely ignoring.

"You can either come inside, have a drink, and meet her like a normal dude, or you can keep your hammer to yourself."

"Will you just do me a favor and hold my hammer?"

Thor shakes his hammer a little impatiently. It's more like an axe-hammer now. Equal parts axe and hammer. Calling it a hammer these days probably wasn't accurate, but Thor wasn't going to argue semantics.

"If you're tired of holding it, just put it down," Kash snarks back, equally impatiently. He can't even believe he's having this conversation.

"You're no fun," Thor sulks. He easily flips Stormbreaker in hand. "Are you going to show me inside your--"

Thor squints at the Madonna Inn, sitting magnificently low to the ground compared to the buildings of Asgard.

"--whatever that is?"

"I'm fun. I'm just not fun for you." No. Really. He is. Ask...well, Z thinks he's fun.

Kash jerks his head in the direction of the Inn and starts walking. He talks while he walks, saying, "Inn. It's not mine. I ended up here the same as you.

"There'll be a room waiting for you. Food and drink are free. Someone will probably ask you to think about what you can do to 'help the community'. If it's a pretty blonde with big eyes and a way-too-bright smile, tell her yes and thank her for the welcome basket."

Thor follows and listens, taking in whatever tidbits of knowledge Kash can offer. Free food and drinks -- good. Helping the community? Probably good and probably a good distraction. Pretty blonde with welcome basket. He can't see how that wouldn't be a good thing.

After Kash has finished speaking, Thor directs a finger at the inn. "If you don't own it, who does?"

Seems like important knowledge to have. The other being what kind of sorcery is this, but since Kash said he did not know, Thor doubted that anyone else would. Anyone who knew would probably be long gone by now.

"No one." Not as far as Kash knows anyway, but he's not going to add that part. "It was here when the first four showed up with no one but the shades that run it. Everyone does their part to keep it running."

Kash really hates welcome duty. He hates talking this much.

"Should probably introduce myself. I'm Kash. I'm a healer. If you're looking for answers, Stephanie and Sam have been here the longest." And Snow, but no way he's unleashing this guy in Snow's direction. Her mama will have to scrape her off the roof with how shy she can be.

"Thor, son of Odin," he says. "What do this Stephanie and Sam look like?"

He can probably keep an eye out for them while he's running around the inn. He'll have this place explored backwards and forward by bedtime.

"Stephanie's blonde--" He lets 'Thor, son of Odin' draw even with him and gestures to his chest at about Stephanie's height. "And about this tall. You can find her in the spa or with Vax, pointy ears, long black hair, wears black." The way he said 'with Vax' was a distinct and deliberate warning that Stephanie was off-limits, but in case Thor, son of Odin wasn't a good listener, he ads, "Best with a dagger I've ever seen and his twin sister's best with arrows." Which reminds him. "If you see an armored bear, leave him alone. He's family."

And then, hm. "Sam's the younger, taller Winchester brother. Almost as tall as you and almost as broad across the shoulders. Hair's longer. He's probably out helping build the temple or calming down an upset ghost." Which was still fucking weird.

Anything Kashaw said after pointy ears goes in one ear and out the other. Thor watches as the other man talks and manages to exhibit enough self-control to let him finish.

"Pointy ears?" he repeats. "Is he a dark elf?"

"What?" Kash looks at Thor, puzzled. Why would that be anyone's first thought? "No. No, they're not drow. They're half-elves, and touchy about the elf half. Their human mother raised them."

"I have a lot of experience with elves, dark and light," he says. "Mostly good with the light elves, mostly bad with the dark ones."

A beat, and then:

"Are they from Alfheim, then? Or are they from some other place, too?"

It was probably better for Thor that they weren't.

Check-In: Not-Mother Hen

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